Revived Sankeys to start 'new era' in new venue

Sankeys, the Manchester nightclub once named as the best in the world, has announced its return, nine years after it closed its doors.

The club, which took top slot in DJ Mag's Top 100 Clubs list in 2010, first opened in 1994 and hosted shows by acts like Daft Punk, Bjork and The Chemical Brothers and DJ sets from Carl Cox, Laurent Garnier and Armin Van Burren, but it shut when its home was sold in 2017.

Announcing that "the legend returns" for "a new era" in January on Instagram, Sankeys said it would be housed in a new 500-capacity city centre space where phones would be banned.

It said it will open on the weekend of 30 and 31 January, with tickets on sale from 09:00 GMT on Friday.

The club first opened in 1994.

It quickly built a reputation to rival big hitters like Sheffield's Gatecrasher, London's Ministry of Sound and Cream in Liverpool, but it closed four years later due to what its owners at the time described as "dwindling numbers".

The club took its name from the soap factory which was once housed in its building

After a few attempts to reopen, it was revived in 2000 and once again found itself at the heart of the UK's clubbing scene, being named as Mixmag's Best UK Club in 2004.

However, in May 2006, a rift in the club's management led to its demise, with its owner announcing Sankeys Soap would close "once and for all".

Four months later, the newly-titled Sankeys opened in Beehive Mill with the catchphrase of "a new beginning".

The new incarnation went from strength to strength, building a reputation that saw it named DJ Mag's number one club in the world in 2010 and spawning Sankeys clubs in other cities across the globe.

But its time came to an end again in 2017, when its owners posted on Facebook that its Beehive Mill home had been sold to a property developer.

They said that move meant that with "great regret" and a "very heavy heart", they had to "close Sankeys Manchester with immediate effect".

The club will reopen in the city centre in January

The club teased the reopening on Instagram in the summer as Oasis returned to play a homecoming gig in the city for the first time in 16 years, stating that Manchester deserved "another homecoming" and adding: "Definitely, maybe?"

Reacting to the post, DJ Jacinta said Sankeys "was literally the reason I wanted to become a DJ, spent so many nights there dreaming of what could be", while motivational speaker Stacey welcomed the no phones rule, saying: "No phones when I was last there... and no phones now. Result."

Radio presenter and DJ Leah simply added that "the mothership is finally calling us home".